QUOTE: The average after-tax income for people in the top 1 percent of income earners climbed 10.1 percent, while that of those in the middle 20 percent climbed 2.3 percent, and that of those in the bottom fifth only 1.6 percent.

QUOTE: ...statistics show a significant decline in the number of penalties imposed on nursing homes for violations of federal health and safety standards...federal officials and independent experts agree that many homes still have serious deficiencies in the quality of care.

QUOTE: Securities regulators and lawmakers are looking into the sale of investments to military personnel that may be ill suited to the financial needs of the service members who buy them...citing concerns that young recruits and other personnel are being treated as a captive market.

QUOTE: A high-profile congressional hearing into the safety of antidepressant medicines was abruptly canceled....by a House panel whose chairman is weighing a top job at a trade group representing the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. The hearing had been called to investigate pharmaceutical companies that have kept negative data about their antidepressant medications secret.

QUOTE: The Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization have reached a compromise on the controversial issue of who gets to name U.S. government scientists to serve as advisers to the Geneva-based organization. The trouble is that the two sides have nearly opposite views of what the compromise means.

QUOTE: ...events in Iraq have revived rumors and predictions that the real draft is coming back, and they have provided one of the periodic opportunities for advocates of a draft to make their case. At the very least, the sons and daughters of the elite don't have to sign up for any reason except a real desire to serve in the military...economic pressure and a lack of other opportunities may lead a poor kid to join the Army even if, on balance, he might prefer a career in investment banking.

QUOTE: A special prosecutor appointed by President Vicente Fox said he would decide in the next 10 days whether to bring criminal charges against former president Luis Echeverria involving a 1971 massacre in which security forces killed at least 30 young protesters in Mexico City.

QUOTE: The e-mail, which surfaced in a subsequent federal probe of Houston-based Enron, is one of at least a dozen documents obtained by The Washington Post that show DeLay and his associates directed money from corporations and Washington lobbyists to Republican campaign coffers in Texas in 2001 and 2002 as part of a plan to redraw the state's congressional districts.

QUOTE: The U.S. government has spent 2 percent of an $18.4 billion aid package that Congress approved in October last year after the Bush administration called for a quick infusion of cash into Iraq to finance reconstruction, according to figures released Friday by the White House.

QUOTE: The Agriculture Department's inspector general has significantly expanded its probe...agreeing to examine the USDA's unannounced decision last year to relax restrictions on trade in Canadian beef...and whether it properly enforced measures to reduce the risk of mad cow disease from Canadian beef.

QUOTE: "I think it is sinful of them to encourage pastors and churches to engage in partisan political activity and run the risk of losing their tax-exempt status," said Steve Rosenthal, chief executive officer of America Coming Together, a group working to defeat Bush.

QUOTE: The firings were the latest tightening of pressure on the Bosnian Serbs over Karadjic by foreign powers. Leaders of the NATO alliance this week rejected Bosnia's request to join the Partnership for Peace, a group of countries that aspire to enter the alliance, on grounds that Karadjic remains at large.

QUOTE: 'We know that it's millions of dollars,' said Lawrence J. Dyckman, who co-wrote the report. 'But we don't know if we're talking about hundreds of millions or half a billion. We really don't know and, unfortunately, the USDA doesn't know either because they haven't paid enough attention to this.'

QUOTE: Two decades ago, legislators would not have been so bold about their interest in making lobbying a second career. But nowadays, sky-high lobbying salaries -- and the tendency of lawmakers to move their families to the D.C. area -- have made consulting for corporations a frequent, even acceptable career path.

QUOTE: The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Bush administration can open U.S. roads to Mexican trucks...The groups that lost the case contended that the court's decision would lead to increased pollution and road congestion...

QUOTE: Abu Anzah and her neighbors say they are caught in the middle between the Israeli military and Palestinian guerrillas and criminal gangs. And they mourn not only the loss of lives and the destruction of houses, but also the street-by-street dismemberment of their community.

QUOTE: What Bush didn't reveal in his nationwide address, however, is that his administration has been working quietly to ensure that the system used to produce hydrogen will be as fossil fuel-dependent -- and potentially as dirty -- as the one that fuels today's SUVs.

QUOTE: "If they don't pay us, we'll start problems," said Lt. Col. Ahmed Muhammad, 41, a 25-year navy veteran based in Basra and a leader of the disgruntled Iraqi soldiers. "We have guns at home. If they don't pay us, if they make our children suffer, they'll hear from us."

QUOTE: The Justice Department is investigating allegations of improper campaign finance practices involving prominent Mississippi trial lawyers, a major source of support for the state's Democratic Party.

QUOTE: Democrats from the Texas Legislature fled to Oklahoma in hopes of preventing a redistricting plan that they believe is biased towards Republicans. Republicans have called their actions childish, desperate and unconstitutional.

QUOTE: The states are desperate, struggling with their worst financial crises since World War II. They have tapped rainy day funds, raided tobacco money that was supposed to have provided health care for children and taxed every possible vice.

QUOTE: Knowledgeable sources in the city government said authorities fear the World Health Organization will add Beijing to its list of destinations to avoid if the real number of SARS cases is reported. That would further erode tourism and business travel, already damaged by the outbreak of the sometimes-fatal illness.

QUOTE: Soaring prices have brought greater values to homes throughout the Northeast. At the same time, states have begun to reassess property more often, so taxes are reflecting the actual value of homes. This has created large, sometimes unbearable, tax burdens for many longtime homeowners...

QUOTE: Many rapists carry out their crime eight to 10 times before they are caught. And hundreds of thousands of rape survivors with unsolved cases wait years for news of a DNA match as statutes of limitations expire.

QUOTE: Teachers and union officials yesterday strongly criticized a Romney (Massachusetts governor) administration proposal to introduce a 401(k)-style pension plan for state employees, claiming the plan would jeopardize workers' pensions and dissuade talented people from public service.

QUOTE: President Bush's initiative to spend $15 billion on global AIDS programs, a central element of his compassion agenda, is getting bogged down in partisan disputes over how to spend the aid and whether the money should be steered away from international clinics if they promote abortion.

QUOTE: "I made a mistake but I can come back out and tell people, `This is where I did wrong, but look at me now,'" said Harold "Noonie" Ward, once a high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples who was convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver in 1991.

QUOTE: Irate Confederate-heritage groups complain that the Park Service is trying to rewrite the history of the Civil War, unnecessarily reopening old wounds by putting a bronze statue of Lincoln in Richmond.

QUOTE: Nearly two years ago, Tehelka, which means sensation in Hindi, caused one. Nine months after its founding, the news Web site burst forth with videotape showing politicians, bureaucrats, military officers and middlemen seeking and taking bribes from arms dealers.

QUOTE: Altria and its subsidiaries - Philip Morris, Miller Brewing Co. and Kraft Foods North America Inc. - made more than 400 unreported donations, including $127,500 to the state Democratic Party. About $15,000 went to Republican candidates.

QUOTE: Trent Lott will spend the rest of his life kicking himself. And if he is even a little bit reflective, which is possible, he will be kicking himself not just for the things he said at Strom Thurmond's birthday party in 2002, but also for the things he said and didn't say back at the start of his political career in Mississippi in the 1960s, before he and others got blindsided by history.

QUOTE: Lawmakers looking to win the support of irate voters are getting extra mileage out of assailing 401(k) abuses by corporate bosses. But do these politicians really know what it's like to see retirement savings turn to rubble?...If congressmen seem hesitant about enacting health care reform, you can partly blame the comfy health benefits they enjoy.

QUOTE: "House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement today on new fuel economy rules that would increase oil consumption, rather than decrease it, unless the Bush administration takes more aggressive action."

QUOTE: The guerrillas and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia -- or AUC, as the privately financed paramilitary group that fights them is called -- have been using a variety of methods to influence the outcome....ranging from death threats to clandestine town meetings...

QUOTE: The Internal Revenue Service actually does try to be helpful. It publishes scores of booklets on doing your return, and the instructions for Form 1040 even include taxpayer-assistance telephone numbers you can call for help in filling it out. But there are still many things about taxes that the IRS would rather you didn't know.